William Alexander

William Alexander (1726-15 January 1783), better known as Lord Stirling, was a Major-General of the Continental Army of the United States during the American Revolutionary War. Alexander gained his nickname due to his belief that he was the rightful heir to the title "Earl of Stirling" in Scotland, and he was later granted the title of Lord after the title of Earl was overruled. He is best-known for his leadership of the 1st Maryland Regiment at the Battle of Long Island, where he fought off the British so that George Washington's army could escape. He exposed the Conway Cabal in 1780, revealing the treachery of Thomas Conway, but he died in Albany, New York of gout in 1783.

Biography
William Alexander was born in 1726 in New York City, New York, the son of Scottish immigrant James Alexander, who had immigrated to the Thirteen Colonies after taking part in the failed Jacobite rising of 1715. Alexander was proficient in mathematics and astronomy, and he married the sister of future Governor of New Jersey William Livingston. In 1759, he sued the government of Great Britain to claim the title of Earl of Stirling, which his family had previously been an heir to; he was granted the title of Lord by King George III of Britain, but not the title of Earl. At the start of the American Revolutionary War, Alexander became a colonel of the New Jersey militia, and in March 1776 he was commissioned as a Brigadier-General of the Continental Army. He commanded the 1st Maryland Regiment at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776 and made a brave stand against the British in order to allow George Washington's army to escape intact, and only 16 of his 250 men survived. Alexander was captured, and he was later exchanged for Montfort Browne. He proceeded to fight in the Battle of Short Hills and the Battle of Monmouth, and in 1780 he led a raid against Staten Island. That year, Alexander revealed the Conway Cabal's attempts to make Horatio Gates the new American commander, earning Washington's trust, and Stirling was sent to Albany to guard New York while Washington embarked on the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. On 15 January 1783, the hard-drinking Alexander died of gout at the age of 57 and was buried at Trinity Church in New York City.